Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Takes a Big Step Towards Putting Xbox Games On Windows (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica, written by Peter Bright: Ever since the first Xbox was released, an obvious question has been hanging in the air: Microsoft already owns one of the premier gaming platforms, the PC, and both the original Xbox and the current Xbox One are more or less PCs anyway, so when is Microsoft going to bring the two together and let us play Xbox games on Windows? With the new Windows 10 builds, it looks like the company is taking some big steps in that direction. Microsoft has put big chunks of the Xbox infrastructure into Windows 10. This starts right from the moment you download the game: it's coming from the Xbox distribution servers, not the usual ones for Store apps. The game package itself uses a format called .xvc, which is used for Xbox One games, and there are PowerShell commands to work with these .xvc files and install .xvc games. Microsoft Gaming Services includes portions of this Xbox infrastructure; it includes a couple of drivers ("Microsoft Gaming Filesystem Driver" and "Microsoft Gaming Install Filter Driver"), along with a number of libraries that provide Xbox APIs.
The last few Windows 10 preview builds have included some vague instructions from Microsoft to install a special edition of a game, State of Decay, and report any problems with the process. There are no problems with playing the game but, rather, problems with installing and launching it. The instructions didn't give any indication as to why or what to look for. Naturally, people have been taking a closer look to see what's special about State of Decay and figure out why Microsoft is having Windows Insiders test it. Nazmus Khandaker, Rafael Rivera, and the pseudonymous WalkingCat have been poking around both the special edition of State of Decay and a helper application called Microsoft Gaming Services that insider machines are running. Brad Sams wrote up his findings. [...] The State of Decay package does nonetheless contain PC-oriented elements. In particular, it tries to install and update the DirectX runtime during its setup. We the users don't seem to be at the stage of simply running Xbox games unmodified on our PCs, or at least, not yet. But it looks as if the groundwork is being laid. The strange preview of a 2020 Windows release looks like it contains even more of this infrastructure, with signs of a layer to support Xbox's Direct3D variant on PC. "Microsoft could go the whole hog and simply make a Windows 10 PC with a suitable hardware spec into an Xbox that can play any Xbox game," writes Bright, adding: "it might just be there as a simple option for developers to enable if they choose."
The last few Windows 10 preview builds have included some vague instructions from Microsoft to install a special edition of a game, State of Decay, and report any problems with the process. There are no problems with playing the game but, rather, problems with installing and launching it. The instructions didn't give any indication as to why or what to look for. Naturally, people have been taking a closer look to see what's special about State of Decay and figure out why Microsoft is having Windows Insiders test it. Nazmus Khandaker, Rafael Rivera, and the pseudonymous WalkingCat have been poking around both the special edition of State of Decay and a helper application called Microsoft Gaming Services that insider machines are running. Brad Sams wrote up his findings. [...] The State of Decay package does nonetheless contain PC-oriented elements. In particular, it tries to install and update the DirectX runtime during its setup. We the users don't seem to be at the stage of simply running Xbox games unmodified on our PCs, or at least, not yet. But it looks as if the groundwork is being laid. The strange preview of a 2020 Windows release looks like it contains even more of this infrastructure, with signs of a layer to support Xbox's Direct3D variant on PC. "Microsoft could go the whole hog and simply make a Windows 10 PC with a suitable hardware spec into an Xbox that can play any Xbox game," writes Bright, adding: "it might just be there as a simple option for developers to enable if they choose."
I expect this is a sign that Microsoft is planning to merge their Windows and Xbox operating systems to give them a single software ecosystem to manage.
worse than Hitler
It's Windows. The platform is called Windows.
Oh the piracy!
The Console has one major advantage over the PC. Uniform Balanced Hardware.
Game makers know how fast the system is, how much RAM, what type of RAM. The Video Chips used.... A game made for the platform tends to run much better then on a PC with much higher specs in most areas. Because there is code that is needed to account for dealing with different drivers for a set of hardware. When a PC is built, they will often get the Expensive Video Card, but cheap on on RAM, or get a slow drive. Hardware makers don't make it easy for most people to make informed decisions. Core i3, i5, i7, i9 6th, 7th, 8th gen? Sure 8th Gen i9 is probably the fastest, but it is wicked expensive. But am I better off with the 8th gen i5 or a 7th Gen i7? Then you build something with a random bottle neck that will slow down the game further.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Some mammoth mandatory Xbox update is going to blue screen my computer.
Wish I had mod points.. lol.
That's an interesting take, PC gamers happen to use Microsoft's OS but their gaming platforms (Microsoft Store, Xbox on PC) have effectively a 0% market share.
Unless they are in all the stores and not just their own, its not worth anything.
http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
Can you just add a Keyboard and Mouse to the XBox now? Shouldn't it be possible to throw an XBox under my desk with a KVM switch?
So no modding for these games too? People can't seem to mod Windows Store games without hacks, and mods are very limited even with the hacks. MS created some infrastructure allowing game creators to allow limited modding through those games but developers ignore that and still don't allow modding. I don't think things will get any better with straight up Xbox games running on Windows. It will probably also limit any useful hacks that help people adjust things like FOV, resolution, frame rate, vsync and other things when there is no menu option in the game.
It seems like all the flexibility and customization that people love from PC games is being stripped out. Luckily we still have GoG and Steam and others for now, but I wonder how long until every type of game and app gets forced into some container that prevents any of this.
Twinstiq, game news
We'll have to go figure out how to get the console games themselves to work, built for controls that don't really map well to keyboard and mouse (no matter how much more sense it would actually make to play the games with keyboard and mouse), built for specs that make you wonder why you bought your new PC (because you can be sure that none of the features you have will be supported), and most of all, it's most likely that the games will only be available in one of the most clunky and user-unfriendly game stores in existence.
I guess I'll pass.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Call me when Fable 2 is on Windows
end j00ish supremacy now
Abstraction is supposed to take care of this on PC. DirectX and other managed APIs are supposed to make sure everything runs the same on every machine. I wonder why they fail so badly when almost everything is the same across gaming PCs. All x86, nVidia and ATi GPUs, there is not much variation and developers use almost the same middleware across the board, yet things fall apart very quickly.
I'll agree and say I highly prefer the console experience of putting in a disc and being able to finish the game without any game breaking or crashing bugs on the day of release (apart from Bethesda games). On PC you might not even be able to launch the game on day one and have plenty of hitches in the experience. On console they will test the game and try and eliminate as much frame rate stuttering as possible and tune the graphics and geometry to be optimal throughout so you don't have to tweak any settings.
On PC when I would play games I was more concerned with tweaking and eliminating these annoyances than enjoying playing the game and didn't seem to find as much satisfaction when I thought there was some tuning I could do to make the experience better. When these options weren't available I was no longer concerned with what could be and focused on what was.
Maybe MS can do the next step, and have XBox consoles also work as Windows 10 machines.
Just like we can Hackintosh a Mac or Emulate games at a higher resolution, we can make a custom pc that is a more Powerful Xbox than the official XBox. I can't wait to build a custom Xbox with Threadripper 3 and RTX 3080 Ti.
The holy grail, for me, would be the ability to buy a single console but play it from any TV in the house. I envision this as a wireless mesh network that sends my signals back to the console but displays on the TV in use. It's not always feasible to be tethered to the location where the console is located. I imagine this will involve some extra hardware, but it would be worth it (for me). Does anyone agree?
and your own storage drives as well.
would
have paid full price for was Metro:Exodus before they pulled their EPICally (see what I did there?) bonehead move to pull it from Steam.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
https://www.polygon.com/2019/2...
container can have mods and config files may not as easy as steam workshop but in game ones. Also container should be able to load / save data into user mydocs folders.
Yeah people are grumpy I asked but hey at least my X-box controller works on Linux. Runs really sweet with Broforce and other games I have on my i7 Linux gaming rig. Figured I'd ask anyway.
So, I don't think PC configuration is an issue....
it was fun ... a long time ago.
>/dev/null 2>&1
Loved Halo 1 and 2 . . . because they were on my pc. Tried Halo 3 repeatedly on my Xbox. Nope. It wasn't that I couldn't play it there, it was because I didn't LIKE to play it there.
Back in the bad old days of the 90's and early 2000's, any console games were built a rendering engine from scratch which was written for the hardware. Nowadays, most games are built on top of a rendering engine which is then ported to each console as needed. This advance is as groundbreaking in its scope as when Grace Hopper first introduced the compiler to make computer languages software development. The biggest name in this space is Unreal Engine. Whether it's PUBG, Fortnite, or Rocket League, each of these games are available on a wide range of consoles, PC and (in PUBG's case) iOS and Android BECAUSE they rely on this intermediary layer rather than by directly programming on a chipset. By extension, any gamer can simply tweak their GFX settings to what they like (most competitive gamers prefer a smooth framerate over GFX detail -- an option console gamers simply don't get).
Other graphics engines which power games like Farcry, Witcher, or Metal Gear Solid/Pro Evolution Soccer follow a similar pattern. A secondary advantage here is going to a new piece of hardware (as it is released). C++ has also matured a bunch since the 90's (e.g. platform independent threading) which has also allowed programmers to be much more generic.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
Why would I want to run XBox One stuff on my PC? I'd rather have a PC version since my pc's a lot better than an XBox One. Fun for older games, maybe. But new releases? No thanks/
With the improvements on Steam Play (Proton) to make Windows games work on Linux, this seems like a move to make it harder for people to completely move out of Windows with a bigger library of games that will be now available from XBox.
Since this is a Mammoth sized bloat with everything under the sun I wonder if we can port Xbox to SystemD and run them under it like we do Linux.
http://saveie6.com/
Why not just release specs for exactly how the xbox works and let the community release a near 1:1 emulator?
Guys, have you ever visited this website https://free-slots.games/netent/hall-of-gods/ ? Here you can play free slot games and I haven't even thought that you can actually play such games for free.
https://hamyarzaban.com/